Saturday, June 6, 2009

Roat Osha – Minneapolis, MN

I had driven by this new Thai place in Uptown and it looked like a pretty nice place. I hadn’t really heard a lot of people talk about it and that worried me, but it’s been open like 6 months, so I cut it some slack. My friend EyeHeartPizza from Denver came for the weekend to visit and I thought we’d go there (mainly so I could check it out)(I’m selfish like that). I also wondered if this place was some sort of secret front for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, but it turns out it’s not. Although, I’m wondering if the signage the employees see is confusing whether it’s company rules or federal laws. Hmmmm. Something to think about (not really). It IS however run by the same people that put together Tum Rup Thai in Uptown, so it’s similar to that.

Roat Osha is very modern and clean inside and looks very nice – actually it looks more “nice” than it does “Asian”, but that’s totally unimportant to the story. We asked for a seat out on the patio since it was really nice outside. Super friendly host and subsequent waiter really got things rolling nicely. There were a couple happy hour specials, but none of them were really what I wanted, despite 2009 being the year of happy hour. (Happy hour isn’t the same without Gerd, I’m sorry. It just isn’t even close.) But they did have a significant girly drink menu and some decent wine as well. That being said, I stuck with water.

I ordered us some fresh spring rolls or maybe salad rolls or whatever they call them here. Rice paper skins wrapped around veggies and shrimp. These were quite tasty and came with a hoissin sauce and plum sauce maybe? I can’t tell. They both had peanuts on the top of the sauces, so it was hard to tell which one I was eating. They were both good though. I don’t think EyeHeartPizza had ever tried these kind of things before, so she was a tad unsure of them – but that didn’t stop her from putting back two of the four they brought us - before I could get my camera out.I found a handful of things on the menu I wanted to try, but I finally decided on the Glass Noodle Stir Fry – Spice level 3 (middle of the 5 point scale). Of course Pad Thai is always an option, as is the Rad Na, but since EyeHeartPizza got the Pad See Ew (which was my second choice), I figured she’d not eat all hers and I’d get it anyway.

The food came out in a reasonable time, maybe even quick, but it was just after 5, so it wasn’t busy yet. My glass noodles looked delicious, although there was a mound of parsley piled on the top (weird). So once I pushed the green mountain aside, I was very impressed with this food. There were plenty of chicken pieces in it and the glass noodles were super soft and tasty. And I’m happy to say that I should have gone with the spice level 4 on this. The only downside to this dish was the serious amount of onions they included. I’m not a fan of onions in the first place, but generally I can power through them in Asian food, especially since I like the flavor (I’m a texture guy). But this was overkill. Unless you’re a vegetarian/vegan, onions should be used for flavoring, not for substance (I’m not a chef though, so that’s just my personal stance). I left a massive amount of onions on the plate when I finished it.

As assumed, EyeHeartPizza got all nancy on me and only ate about half of her Pad See Ew, plus she thought the level 3 spice was too hot for her. So we swapped plates and I finished her meal. Actually, her’s might have been a wee bit better, but they were both really good. Thankfully, I took a photo of hers as well since she didn’t want to feel left out of the food photo shoot.While this place isn’t going to be my favorite Thai place, it’s good and I’ll eat here again, I’m sure of it. Try it out and see what you think.

Bottom 5 things1. Gerd wanted to try every Thai restaurant in the Twin Cities and we never made it to this one2. Too many onions3. Sitting outside next to Hennepin at the tail end of rush hour gets really loud4. I should have gotten at least a 4 on the spice level5. No dew, only Coke